Ukraine de facto has long lost the ability to conduct operations in the Sea of Azov. Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, told Izvestiya about this on Thursday, May 26.
“De facto, Ukraine – this is clear to everyone – has long lost any opportunity to conduct operations in the Sea of Azov, which it did before, because in fact there is not a kilometer of territory left where Ukraine would have access to the sea,” he stressed.
According to the expert, this became possible primarily due to the special operation, as well as the actions of the Russian Armed Forces and the armies of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. As Korotchenko noted, the Sea of Azov is actually inland, adding that it will become a zone where, by definition, there will no longer be either Ukrainian or foreign fleets.
“For us, a much more significant issue related to the establishment of control over the Odessa and Nikolaev regions in order to deprive Ukraine of access to the Black Sea. This is a task of a truly strategic nature, ”said the editor-in-chief of the National Defense.
Korotchenko also expressed the hope that this task will be implemented in the near future.
Earlier in the day, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye region, said that Ukraine had irrevocably lost access to the Sea of Azov, since the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions would never return to the control of the Kyiv regime.
In addition, he expressed confidence that “after the reunification of the regions with Russia”, the Sea of Azov will again become an exclusively inland sea of the Russian Federation.
On May 23, the Permanent Representative of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation, Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean government Georgy Muradov stated that the Sea of Azov had become a joint sea for Russia and the DPR. He also noted that the Kyiv authorities will lose access to the Sea of Azov after the liberation of the Kherson and southern parts of the Zaporozhye regions and the determination of their status.
On May 20, State Duma deputy from the Republic of Crimea Mikhail Sheremet said that NATO’s plans to build military bases in the Sea of Azov were thwarted, as Ukraine lost control of access to a strategically important facility as a result of a special operation by the Russian Federation.